Fans for Jrock Con

Jmusic is entering a new age for the international community, especially in the U.S. More and more artists are being sought after to make appearances at conventions, and the word on the street is that they love every minute of it. Japanese artists are shocked and yet overjoyed at the amount of overseas fans, which can only bring good things in the future. While recent appearances have all been confined to Japanese animation conventions, it's high time this growing musical genre was given a convention of its own.

In 2003 T.M. Revolution performed at Otakon at Baltimore. following his signing to Tofu Records, which spawned U.S. releases of certain T.M.R. DVDs and CDs. The following year he performed again in the U.S. at Pacific Media Expo at Anaheim, which was finished with a promo trip to Vancouver, Canada where he made a special guest appearance on premiere Canadian music channel Fuse. Had enough? Of course not! June has been a busy month for our Takanori Nishikawa, as he made his way on the red carpet for the world premiere of SpiderMan 2 for his work on the song 'Web of Night' for the Japanese Spider Man 2 Soundtrack.

In 2003 B'z toured North America on their Banzai Tour, stopping at Las Vegas, L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver.

In 2003 BLOOD made their first appearance in the U.S. when they performed at Fanime Con's Gakufest in Santa Clara. Following the June live, they performed at Anime Expo in Anaheim as well. This year they were invited back and again performed at Fanime Con in San Jose for Musicfest (formerly named Gakufest) after performing at Ohayo Con in January. They have also released international versions of some of their singles and albums.

Dual Jewel also came to the U.S. in 2003 to perform at A-kon in Dallas, Texas, then flying over to Anaheim for a performance at Anime Expo. This year they were invited to Fanime's Musicfest and also have yet to perform at Oni-con in Houston, Texas in October.

Camino, like all the others, made their way to the U.S. alongside Dual Jewel at A-kon in Texas, and again found themselves next to Dual Jewel at Fanime Con's Musicfest. The month after they returned to A-kon for an encore performance, and have since then returned to Japan to promote the release of their latest album, IC Brain.

Psycho~le~Cemu is this year's only new comer, performing at the first annual Pacific Media Expo (PMX) in Anaheim, California.

What do all six of these artists have in common? They all want to come back! In a 2004 interview with T.M. Revolution, Takanori said: "It kind of became a yearly thing where I performed in America like last year at Otakon and this year at PMX but I would like to do a normal tour in the U.S. similar to a tour that I have done in Japan." He is also hopeful of releasing a single into American CD charts. (source: nt2099 Entertainment Interviews) From a 2004 transcript of the Psycho~le~Cemu Question and Answer panel, Daishi said, "I want to tour the U.S. I didn't expect so many people to see us. I feel we could have a chance to tour.", Yura also commented, "I want to come back to the U.S." Lida, however, said, "We will continue to raise the bar in Japan before a debut in America." Aya was unsure, saying that "America is very fun to play in" and Seek added that they "need the U.S. fans' support to come back." (source: nt2099 Entertainment Interviews) BLOOD, Dual Jewel, and Camino have all expressed personal wishes on their official message boards to return to the conventions previously played at in the U.S. No word from B'z on a return tour or appearance on American soil.

It's become quite clear that 2003 was the year that launched a thousand planes, or perhaps sparked the engines in many other planes that may carry over more and more JRock artists as they come and that we can accomodate. Jrock has begun to make its move into making a permanent mark on Japanese rock culture in the States, and we believe the question of whether or not we are ready for it has already been answered a long time ago. The Japanese rock fans who have hereby signed this petition have shown that there is considerable widespread interest in Jrock Con and ask that you recognize their community by financially aiding Jrock Con.